Apple may be joining LG and moving into HDTV market with 55’ OLED

Apple have had their small set top box for quite a while now for streaming content via its iTunes service. Other the last few months there have been rumors that the company could bring out its own Apple branded TVs. These have surfaced again with rumors that Apple may be joining LG and moving into the HDTV market with a 55-inch OLED.

An article on Smarthouse is reporting that Apple is allegedly currently negotiating worldwide deals with Hollywood movie studios. The company are said to want to secure the rights to show movies first, and to coincide with this will launch a 55-inch OLED HDTV. It is claimed Apple also want the rights to current TV shows that are being showed in the US, and the TV could be launched in 2012.

There are also rumors that Apple has talked to display company LG, who currently make screens for Mac products. Apple wants the new HDTV to be capable of delivering video, music and TV shows over its network. It has also been claimed recently that Apple are looking to buy the Hulu online video service, which will then allow it to take on the likes of Netflix.

Apple is certainly cash rich at the moment following the posting of the company’s latest results last week. The rumors surrounding Apple come just a few days after LG announced they plan to launch a 55-inch OLED TV by the second half of next year. Currently most OLED display’s are on the small side as the technology needs more investment for research into the technology.

It has often been looked at the next big thing in display technology, but with the recent financial climate has been slow getting to the mass market. What Hi-Fi are reporting that LG Display CEO Kwon Young, said the company was now concentrating its efforts in developing larger OLED displays, as the smaller sized units are less profitable.

He said the company is determined to make the displays a real world product for the mass market. At first production will be limited to “tens of thousands of units”, but he added they will “expand them to a mass production system”, after seeing how the market reacts to the technology.

Many believe that LCD technology has gone as far as it can with sales of Plasma displays now growing stronger. So if a company such as Apple can work with the likes of LG and bring large screen OLED displays to the mass market, they could be onto a winner.